Abstract

Footnotes (173)

Using the URL or DOI link below will
ensure access to this page indefinitely

Based on your IP address, your paper is being delivered by:

New York, USA

Processing request.

Illinois, USA

Processing request.

Brussels, Belgium

Processing request.

Seoul, Korea

Processing request.

California, USA

Processing request.

If you have any problems downloading this paper,please click on another Download Location above, or view our FAQFile name: SSRN-id1750294. ; Size: 258K

You will receive a perfect bound, 8.5 x 11 inch, black and white printed copy of this PDF document with a glossy color cover. Currently shipping to U.S. addresses only. Your order will ship within 3 business days. For more details, view our FAQ.

Quantity:Total Price = $9.99 plus shipping (U.S. Only)

If you have any problems with this purchase, please contact us for assistance by email: Support@SSRN.com or by phone: 877-SSRNHelp (877 777 6435) in the United States, or +1 585 442 8170 outside of the United States. We are open Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:30AM and 6:00PM, United States Eastern.

Racial Paradox and Eclipse: Obama as a Balm for What Ails Us

This essay focuses upon the historic 2008 campaign and instances that reveal racial paradox and division. In a race that promised to deliver the first female President, first female Vice President, or the first black President, both crude and subtle identity politics were revealed that challenged the claim made by much of the media punditry that the American citizenry had moved into a "post-racial" epoch of cultural color blindness.

Hence Barack Obama’s success does not represent the transcendence of identity politics, but rather his skillful navigation of our chaotic collective racial consciousness. In "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance," Obama chronicled his racial journey and described the ways in which he was forced to manage his identity to put white relatives and acquaintances at their ease. However, despite his choice and construction of his identity as a black man, during the 2008 campaign Obama often became the blank slate onto which racial and other identity based hopes and phobias were transferred.

His biography as "the son of a black man from Kenya and white woman from Kansas" placed him at many identity intersections. As a result, Obama was often asked to authenticate or distance himself from his identity in a way not required of other candidates. Obama was simultaneously urged to address concerns that he was "too black" or "not black enough." Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Sarah Palin faced no such scrutiny. This obsession with racial identity is more revealing of disorder than transcendence.

This essay explores Barack Obama’s ability to successfully navigate these hopes and phobias. While Obama’s ability to negotiate an intersectional identity may have been his most impressive achievement of the 2008 campaign, it has not dislodged our deep discomfort in openly and honestly discussing matters of race.